Close Readings

Copied Christine Sun Kim, Close Readings, 2015, four-channel video; 25:53 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2020.79.2, © 2015 Christine Sun Kim. Courtesy of the artist and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles

Artwork Details

Title
Close Readings
Date
2015
Location
Not on view
Copyright
© 2015 Christine Sun Kim. Courtesy of the artist and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums Description
four-channel video; 25:53 minutes
Classifications
Object Number
2020.79.2

Artwork Description

Through her art, Kim encourages audiences to attend to the links between music and meaning, sound and other senses, perception and interpretation, and various modes of communication. She uses scores, graphical notation and text, and performance and media installations to explore how she and the larger Deaf community establish their own relationships to the world of sound.

For Close Readings, Kim edited together clips from five movies, removed the sound, and partially blurred the visuals. Then she invited four Deaf or hard-of-hearing collaborators to write unique captions, which she added to each channel above the existing studio captions. The four screens play in sync, showing vastly different verbal interpretations of the same scene and soundtrack, and underscoring how different approaches to captioning significantly impact viewing experiences.

Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies, 2023

Related Books

The cover of the publication Musical Thinking New Video Art & Sonic Strategies
Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies 
Exploring the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music, the exhibition Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies features ten leading contemporary artists and the work.

Exhibitions

Media - 2020.54.1 - SAAM-2020.54.1_2 - 139600
Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies
June 23, 2023January 28, 2024
Musical Thinking explores the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music.

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